Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radiation blocking unit, a radiographic imaging apparatus, and a radiographic imaging method. In particular, the present invention relates to a radiographic imaging apparatus in which an incidence region of radiation is indicated by visible light, a radiation blocking unit that is attachable to the radiographic imaging apparatus, and a radiographic imaging method.
Description of the Related Art
Mammography machines for the early detection of breast cancer, for example, are known as medical radiographic imaging apparatus. A mammography machine captures a radiographic image of a breast, serving as an imaging target of an examinee, in a state in which the breast is squeezed between an object table surface of an object table and a compression plate and the breast is compressed by the compression plate. A radiation detection panel is built into the object table, and radiation transmitted through the breast is detected in the radiation detection panel.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,826,588 discloses a device and method for generating digital X-ray images of a sample. In this device and method, a sample of tissue excised from a breast is placed on a support plate disposed above a biopsy unit, with the breast remaining squeezed and compressed between a detector and the biopsy unit. The sample is placed above an unused region of an object table surface of the detector. Then, the sample is irradiated with X-ray radiation, whereby an X-ray image of the sample is obtained without exposing the breast to unnecessary X-ray radiation.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. H07-148159, for example, in order to check an incidence region of radiation to be emitted to an examination object, a radiographic imaging apparatus is disposed with a light aiming mechanism that emits visible light to an incidence region that is the same as the incidence region of the radiation. In the device and method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,826,588, in order to obtain an X-ray image of the sample, the incidence region of the X-ray radiation is changed to an unused region of the object table surface of the detector outside the breast in the compressed state. The changing of the incidence region of the X-ray radiation is accomplished by moving a blocking plate disposed in a collimator box. The places where an X-ray source that emits X-ray radiation and a visible light source that emits visible light are disposed are different, so when the X-ray radiation and the visible light pass through a slit in the blocking plate, the incidence region, on the object table surface, of the radiation that has been emitted from the X-ray source and the incidence region, on the object table surface, of the visible light that has been emitted from the visible light source do not coincide. For this reason, there has been room for improvement.